Redeeming The Time

The "Christmas story" shows us clearly how holiness lives in the midst of the mundane, invisible to the world. Do we notice it and crave it, or are we living swallowed up by the mundane? As we discuss this, we leisurely make our way toward an exegesis of the epistle for Nativity, which tells us the "Meaning of Christmas." focusing on: "Wherefore thou art no more a SLAVE, but a son...." We discuss slavery, and freedom, and how freedom is possible because of the incarnation. Galatians 4:4-7

The primary meaning of Nativity may be summed by the name "Emmanuel," God is with us. We talk about prayer and its one main purpose, and also the liturgy and all prayer in the church. It is to have God be with us, to be in his presence and even with Him in us. We should experience God, more than when we experience the sun when we are in its presence. Everything we do should be to experience God and be in His presence.

A talk on prison ministry, at the St Herman Youth Conference, 2015. The theme of the conference was marriage, so I showed conclusively, using the four principles of prison ministry, that it is just like marriage. You do not believe? Listen and you will. There is really important stuff here about how to live, which includes how to minister in prison and have a stupendous marriage. The four principles are: Pray, Just do it, 90% of life is just showing up, and Whatever crosses your path.

The Parable of the Great supper is always read two Sundays before Nativity because it is about the Incarnation. We describe its main parts, before we get to the most important part. It describes in a poetic way the Incarnation, the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles. This is all important to know, but it is background for the critical moral teaching that all Christians must understand and do. There are two important phrases that we go over in great detail: "And they *ALL* with one consent began to make excuse...". This describes the propensity for human nature to fall away from God. What will check our fall? The parable answers in a mystical way: "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in...". This word "compel" has an immediate meaning in the parable of urgency, but its spiritual meaning is more profound and unspeakably beautiful. The Christian who tastes of God is COMPELLED, not from the outside by any external law or force, but internally, in his o

The healing of the 10 lepers has an obvious lesson - that we must give thanks to God when He heals us. The lesson is much deeper and a little more subtle than that. There are two subtle lessons in this scripture that we should know well. One is a connection between faith, patience, and the Jesus prayer. Another is that any time (that is every moment) that grace acts, we must change in response.

Homily given on the Feast of Saint Andrew. This Scripture is also read on the first Sunday of Great Lent. All of our life we are given the same command as was Andrew and Nathaniel: "Come and see!" This command describes the only victorious way of living the Christian life.

What was his greatest sin? It was not greed or not caring for the poor. It was something more basic than that. We must learn to know what is life, and what is death. If God is an abstraction to us, we take our own counsel as the rich man did, and choose death over life.

Instruction at the beginning of a fasting season. People want to know the fasting rules. The most important rule is that we must understand why we should fast, and fast with purpose. We talk about this purpose in detail, with a few examples from Scripture (the woman with an issue of blood and the Shunamite woman whose son Elisha raised) and St Zosimas, in the Life of St. Mary of Egypt.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is an excellent example of how theory must become practice. The parable is a deep well, and we can talk about many things. Today we will "connect the dots" between theoretical knowledge and practical actions. Theory is useless without practice. The lawyer understood theory well, and the parable further explained the incarnation (theory) and applied it to how we must live. The dots we connect are summed up by the following snippets from this Gospel: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ... this do, and thou shalt live," "Who is my neighbor?," "And by chance there came down...," “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was...," and “Take care of him!" At the end we give two critical practical suggestions to how we can love our neighbor, and perhaps an unexpected benefit.

A homily during the celebration of the Eucharist, a word which means "Thanksgiving," on American Thanksgiving. What am I thankful for? Among many verses of Scripture, this one is apropos: "A man shall draw near, and the heart is deep" (Psalm 63:6). Our heart was made by God to be deep enough to contain Him. The temporal time we spend on earth fills this heart, as there are good times and bad times, but always with God. This I am thankful for. On this day we are celebrating St. John Chrysostom, who famously, as he was dying, said "Glory to God for all things." I, in a poor way, unlike him, am thankful for all these things. Two of them are described in the reading appointed for him, from John, about the Shepherd. One part says that his sheep go in and out, and find pasture. This is the total freedom of being in God. We do not have this freedom yet, but we are attaining it. As we attain it, we are shepherds, no matter if we are priests, or bishops, or lay people, because our Lord is a Shepherd, and we are becomi

When Jesus was touched by the woman with an issue of blood He said “Who touched me?” Moments later, He told her that her faith made her well. What is this faith? We must learn from it. As part of our education, we talk about what we must expect and yearn for when we attend the liturgy. We also compare her faith to that of the Shunamite widow, whose son Elisha raised. Luke 7:41-56.

We must answer all questions in Scripture. The question of the legion of demons in the Gaderene demoniac is one we must answer every moment: "What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high?" The only possible correct (and rare!) answer: "Everything." There are some good examples of this answer: from a man recently baptized in prison, and the Shunamite woman who went to Elisha because her son died. We also discuss what we should expect when we attend any service, especially liturgy.

Two kinds of being "dead in sins." One leads to life. "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved)." What does it mean to be "dead in sins"? There are two ways to be "dead in sins," and one leads to life. We look at some examples from the Scriptures, and "define" other important words in Ephesians 2:4-10, that seem simple, but are not well understood: being "quickened," grace, faith, works which do not save and works without which we will not be saved. We also touch again as we did yesterday on our identity in Christ as His workmanship, and tell the sad story of a man who identified with free masonry and his grandfather above Christ. Do you know what is dead and what is alive? This is a critical question which you must answer many times each day.

Our society has an identity crisis. People identify themselves by many things - their wealth, success, politics, race, sexuality, and many more things. Only one identity saves us. We discuss the life of Great Martyr Demetrius in light of the teaching on identity by St Paul: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

The Parable of the Sower is not just a story. It is a command; it teaches us how to live. We go over some of the "circled words" at the end of the parable, "good ground," and "an honest and good heart," and "bring forth fruit with patience." They all teach us the way of life. We especially describe two kinds of patience. One is a wonderful personality trait to possess, but is not salvific, in and of itself, The other is absolutely necessary for salvation; without this kind of patience, no person can be saved. We also talk about ways to cultivate this kind of patience from personal pastoral experience.

In the raising of the son of the Widow of Nain, two words stand out: "weep not." Only Jesus has the authority to say these words to those who grieve, because He has the ability to do anything. Why do we weep; why are we sad about things great and small in life? Our Lord is continually, forcefully ordering us to "weep not" about such things. We should only weep about sin in ourselves and others. We look at why we weep inappropriately, and how to live in such a way to understand and follow the command of our Lord: "weep not." (Luke 7:11-16)

The reason for the Golden Rule varies, depending on the level of spiritual development of the hearer. It is good to understand the "stages" a Christian goes through in obeying this rule, and what it is and what it is not. Most think it is about fairness, or, if more advanced, that it tells us to use our desires and feelings to judge how others would want to be treated. These understanding are good, but not perfect. At the end of His teaching, Jesus gives the reason why the perfect follow the Golden rule: "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." Luke 6:31-3

We modern Christians give up too easily. The saints of the Scriptures did not give up. They had things in their life that they chose to make "non-negotiable." We must too. We look at the examples of Elisha, Ruth, and the Apostle Peter. If we do not have non-negotiable things in our lives, we have no life. "As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." "Whithersoever thou goest, I will go, and wheresoever thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." " Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." 2(4) Kings 2:1-2, Ruth 1:16-18, John 6:67-69

The first great catch of fish, given in Luke 5:1-11 occurred as the Lord was assembling his apostles. They were ignorant and untested men. This incident is more powerful for the soul when it is read with the account of the second great catch of fish, in the Gospel of John. This occurred after 3 1/2 years of seasoning, teaching, successes, and failures. The differences in the two accounts are very edifying to explore. They will affect the way you live your life if you are paying attention. First Sunday of Luke, Luke 5:1-11.

The Exaltation of the Cross and the Transfiguration of the Lord are linked liturgically and spiritually.The linking verse is, "There be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." We explain the most important phrase in our Lord's command: "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." and look at epistles which explain fully how to follow the Lord, and the end result of our labor. "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." (Galatians 2:20, Mark 8:34-9:1, and 2 Corinthians 9:8)